The Beast (Wicked Villains, #4)

by Katee Robert

“Get on your knees, Isabelle. If you’re going to beg, do it properly.” Gaeton flinches like the other man struck him. “What the fuck, Beast?”

“Did you know that just a few months ago, we fucked a friend, filling her with three cocks, and it still wasn’t enough? Gaeton needed her Dom to fuck his mouth while she rode his dick.” There it is again. That barbed jealousy that demands I pull back, protect myself because these men might have loved me once, but they kept so much from me. “Fuck you, Beast.” “Not me, princess.” His chuckle is raspy and deep. “But we’re going to fuck you. Over and over again, in every way possible. I’m going to come all over that pretty pussy of yours…” He barely lets me process his words before he whispers the next part. “And then I’m going to make Gaeton lick it up.”

Beast jerks his chin at the couch. “Gaeton, sit.” “Woof.” “Bad dog,” Beast fires back without hesitation.

“You ruined my dress.” “Won’t be needing it where we’re going.” I nudge her across the back seat and follow her in, leaving Gaeton to walk around to the driver’s door. Isabelle slaps my hands away when I reach to fasten her seatbelt. “You can’t be suggesting I’m not wearing clothes for the next two weeks. Don’t be absurd.” Gaeton backs out of the parking spot and heads for the exit. “Depends on how many pieces of clothing you want ruined, Isabelle. Your choice.”

I never stopped wanting her. I never stopped loving her, either.

They pursued me for months before I admitted I couldn’t pick one of them over the other, and they told me that I didn’t have to. My only sin is loving them both and refusing to choose. They are the ones who decided that dating me at the same time was a good idea, but everyone conveniently forgets that when we talk about the past.

“She was never going to pick me.” There it is. The truth that’s eaten me alive since we decided to both date her. I never figured myself for a masochist, but I always am for this woman. I can’t do it anymore. I fucking won’t.

“Are you furious at Isabelle for wanting to play the part of our dirty little slut? Or are you furious at yourself for wanting it, too?”

“It hurts. Even when it feels good, it hurts.”

“Communication has never been our strong suit—any of our strong suits. There are going to be hiccups.”

“You lied to me.” He flinches. It’s a tiny movement, barely perceptible, but there nonetheless. “I never lied to you.” “Really, Gaeton? Really?” I look over his shoulder at Beast. “You both lied to me the entire time we were dating. You held yourselves back, you presented me with one side of yourself and nothing more. You kept this from me.” I try to motion around us, but my hands are mostly trapped by the blanket. “You both decided you knew what I needed and you didn’t stop to talk to me about it. Not once.” My throat goes hot and tight, but I can’t stop now that I’ve started. “You touched me like I was some breakable precious thing because you knew best. You were starving me and neither of you cared, because all that mattered was playing Prince Charming to the princess you put on a pedestal. You can hate me for not being able to choose, but how was I supposed to make a choice when neither of you gave me anything approximating an honest relationship?” Gaeton leans forward. “Isabelle—” But it’s too late. I can’t stop. I’m not even sure I want to anymore. “And what the fuck did you think was going to happen if I did choose? That you’d just be happy with sweet, vanilla sex for the rest of your life? That we wouldn’t start resenting each other for the parts we weren’t allowed to show? That eventually one of us wouldn’t set the whole relationship on fire just to feel something?” His brows lower. “I would never cheat on you.” “No one can make promises when they’re starving. May...

Gaeton kisses me like I’m his world. Everything else might have changed, but that hasn’t.

“How about a bet, Gaeton? How many orgasms do you think our Isabelle can stand before she begs for mercy?” He gives my clit a little slap that has me jumping. “I think twelve.” “Give her a little credit. Fifteen, at least.” Fifteen orgasms? I don’t know if I can survive it. “If I’m right, I fuck your ass again tonight.” Beast’s hand spasms the tiniest bit on my back. “If you’re right, you can take mine.” Suddenly Gaeton doesn’t sound as amused. “And if she holds out past fifteen?” Beast leans over me, pressing against my back, his cock hard against my ass. “Then as a reward, we both fuck her at the same time.” My trepidation turns to anticipation. I arch back against Beast. “I can handle more than fifteen.” His laugh vibrates against my back. “We’ll see, princess. We’ll see.”

That control is what allowed me to date Isabelle at the same time as Gaeton. I wanted her. Eventually, I loved her. Competing for her love with him the same way we competed for everything else—power, status, money—felt like a natural extension of our already contentious relationship. Gaeton’s only role was as adversary. I wouldn’t allow myself to think about him as anything else, couldn’t afford to nurture the flicker of heat that sometimes rose when we fought.

“Isabelle hasn’t been having her needs met. For every question she answers honestly, she gets that fantasy played out in real life.” Interest flares in Gaeton’s dark eyes. “Now I’m really listening.” Isabelle gives a shaky little inhale. “You two are asking a lot of honesty from me and not giving me much in return.” She’s not wrong, but I give her nipple a light pinch all the same. “If you have a counter proposal, make it.” “A truth for a truth. I’ll answer truthfully, but you will, too.”

“I want you to wear one of those short little numbers, the ones that are just shy of being proper, with no panties under it.” He holds her gaze as he speaks, his expression so intense, it steals my breath. “And halfway through, I want to fuck you in that side room off the ballroom, the one where everyone hangs out at the end of the night. I want to fuck you until I have to cover your mouth to keep you quiet so no one hears you coming only a few feet from the party, and then I want you to walk back out there and make small talk while filled up with my come.” He barely waits a beat. “And then I want to do it again, and again, until we’re caught for real, until someone walks in to find me fucking the pure princess the rough and dirty way you crave.” “Oh.”

Playing out my fantasy would be walking into that room. Interrupting them. Punishing them. And then making them continue fucking while I join in. I won’t say it. Not now. No matter what I told them, now isn’t the time for honesty from me. Too much truth can harm, and we’re sitting too precariously for me to do something to spin us out of balance. So I lie. “I always wanted to fuck you in your father’s office.”

Before we’re through with her, she will be.

“You know better than most that I have a public image to uphold. That’s not vanity; it’s fact. You bring anyone in here that aren’t my sisters, and it’s a territory issue. You know this. You can degrade me all you want for the next twelve days in private, but you don’t get to do it in public.”

He’s wearing those gray sweatpants again, and his big cock is a clear imprint against the front. Fuck, those things should be illegal.

I never know what to say to people who offer their condolences or apologies.

“You are fucking up. I don’t care what you decide when it comes to her and Beast, but don’t you dare hurt yourself to make them happy.” She glances at Beast. “The same goes for you, asshole.”

“She didn’t reject you before. Fuck, she’s so wrapped up in you, she can’t see straight. So forgive me if I’m not exactly elated to know that at the end of this, I’ll be the one left hanging in the wind.” I expect him to gloat a little. To confirm what I’ve seen with my own two eyes. Fuck, maybe even to laugh a little in that dry way of his. Instead he stares at me like he wants to shake some sense into me. “You think she didn’t reject me? We didn’t last a month after you walked away. Even when we weren’t a true triad, we didn’t work without you there to balance us.”

“I thought you loved Isabelle.” “I do. I did.” His eyes freeze over and his voice gains a cruel edge. “Some marriage you would have given her if you’re ready to run scared at the first sign of trouble. Did you really want forever, or did you just want the prize?” “Fuck you.” He lowers his voice. “Get your head in the game, Gaeton. This isn’t about just us anymore, and you being all up in your feelings is going to get someone killed. It’s going to get Isabelle killed.”

“I lied when I told you what my fantasy was.” “Yeah, I know.” I’d wondered about it at the time, but was too tired to press the issue. “Why bring it up now?” Beast closes the last bit of distance between us, bringing us chest to chest. My instincts get all tangled up. I can’t tell if we’re about to fight or fuck, and I freeze. He leans up and his teeth graze my jaw in a nip. “You’re not being honest with either of us, Gaeton.” “Obviously neither of us are,” I grind out. “What are you talking about, specifically?” “Do you remember that afternoon?” He keeps going even as my mind tries to flicker away what I know he’s talking about. “You were in Isabelle’s bed, and she was riding your cock. The sunlight bathed your skin golden and she was so wet, I could hear it from the door.” Just like that, I’m back in that memory I’ve shoved down deep. Isabelle’s pussy clamped tight around my cock, her tits bouncing a little with each thrust, her eyes closed as she rides me. A movement behind her as the door slides soundlessly open. My gaze snagging Beast’s across the distance and, for the first time, not seeing loathing reflected there. Only desire. It wasn’t aimed solely at Isabelle, either. I draw in a ragged breath. “Yeah, I remember.” “We pretended it never happened. Never spoke of it.” He presses his hips to mine, demonstrating that he’s just as turned on by the memory as I am. “In my fantasy, I walked in. Stripped. Joined you both in that bed. I punished you for getting started wit...

“Why didn’t you choose one or the other to begin with?” A lump forms in my throat. It’s a question I’ve been asked dozens of times, from my father to people who are barely more than strangers. The only two who never actually asked me are Gaeton and Beast. They’re the only ones I owe an answer to. “Because I’m selfish.” When he just waits, obviously wanting more, I press my lips together. I can do this. I can be honest. “You are both so different. I wanted you because you’re this mystery wrapped up in the prettiest package I’ve ever seen. I wanted Gaeton because he’s giant and brutal and yet has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. Being with you brings out different things in me.” My voice wobbles a little bit, but I power through. “And I liked that you were both mine, that I was both of yours. The things Gaeton accused me of are the truth of it. Part of me got off on bouncing back and forth between you.” His expression gives me nothing. No condemnation. Certainly not forgiveness. “There are people who aren’t meant for monogamy, Isabelle.” I’m not sure if he’s trying to absolve or condemn me. “If you really believed that, you wouldn’t be having me choose at the end of this.”

“After we’re done here…” “Yeah?” He strokes his hand down my chest and grips my cock through my jeans. Gaeton curses softly. “After we’re done with Isabelle’s fantasy, why don’t we try yours on for size?” The storage room suddenly seems significantly smaller. I look up at him, my heart beating harder than it has right to. “We don’t have to do that.” “It has nothing to do with having to do something, and everything with wanting to do it.” He leans down and licks my bottom lip. “Maybe Isabelle isn’t the only one with a little bit of a shame kink. Maybe I don’t want to wait for later, at least for this.” He exhales slowly and reaches for the button of my jeans. I hold perfectly still as he unzips me and draws my cock out. “And maybe you weren’t the only one that day who thought about what it would be like with three of us in bed together.”

“It pissed me off so fucking much to watch you suck Hook’s cock. To know that he had your ass whenever he wanted it.” Gaeton grins in the near-darkness. “Jealous.” “Fuck yeah. And furious about it.” I sift my fingers through his hair. “We do this, and there’s no going back. Your mouth is mine. Your ass is mine. You are mine, just like she is.” “Or maybe that’s not what it means. Maybe it means I just want to suck you off right now.” Gaeton licks the head of my cock.

I love this big-hearted asshole. I’m never fucking letting him go. Not now. Not ever.

“I didn’t know shame could be so sexy, something to play with and enjoy instead of trying to shove down deep.”

“You were right before. We agreed to that fucked up situation, and we both failed to be honest with you. I don’t know about Beast but I just wanted to be good enough for you.” He laughs a little, the sound jagged and sharp. “He calls you princess, but that’s the fucking truth of what I thought. You were a princess and if I just compressed myself enough, I could be your Prince Charming.” It’s a truth we’ve touched on again and again in the last few days, but hearing him admit to it shakes me to my core. I reach out a tentative hand and place it on his chest. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t want a Prince Charming.” “No, you want two monsters.” The words hold no venom. Beast shifts closer, not quite touching either of us. “Monsters are more effective than princes when it comes to keeping what you care about safe.” His blue eyes flare. “They’re better at playing dark games in bed, too.” I can’t quite fight down a shiver as the memories of the night crash over me. “That’s the damn truth.”

“We’re his second choice. Or second and third.” “No, you’re not second choice. And neither of you is third.” Beast looks like he wants to shut down this line of conversation, but he finally sighs. “I’m not the same person I was nine years ago. If Cohen is still alive, he’s not the same man I fell in love with. He’s my past. You—both of you—are my future. Together. No one above the other.”

“Do you trust me?” Gaeton tenses like he wants to argue, but finally gives a jerky nod. “Yeah. I trust you.” “Trust me to take care of us until this feels real.”

He tastes like home. I don’t think these men will ever not feel like home to me.

“I used to hate you, but that saying that hate and love are two sides to the same coin?” He shrugs without moving away. “There’s some truth to it.”

“I don’t think I have to say it, but I’m a fan of clearly marked action and consequence. As such,” She slows. “If you hurt my sister, I will take you into my lab and make you wish for death before I finally let you cross over. I’m very good, and I can make it last a very long time. Do we understand each other?” She’s not bluffing. Sienna is incapable of bluffing. I hold her gaze. “We’re not going to hurt Isabelle.” “Then I suppose we’ll never have to worry about it, will we?”

“Sometimes shitty things have to happen to keep our people safe, love. It’s the burden your father never wanted you to have.”

I move Isabelle’s hair off her neck and press a kiss to her throat. “Marry me.” I look up and meet Beast’s intent gaze. “Both of you.” Isabelle gives a hiccupping little laugh. “That’s not legal.” “I don’t give a fuck about legal. I give a fuck about what we want.” Beast smooths his hand down my side and transfers his attention to her. “I don’t need a wedding. I never did. Gaeton does. What do you need?” She’s so still, I have to concentrate to feel her breathing. Finally, she says, “I … At one point marriage felt like something that was just another kind of trap, but not too long ago I thought about walking down the aisle to both of you. I liked the idea of it. A lot.” Beast smiles. A real smile, not his cold little tease of one. The motherfucker grins like he can’t contain his happiness. “I have a few ideas about rings.” I narrow my eyes. “You just said you don’t need a wedding.” “Need has nothing to do with want. I’m not a fool, Gaeton. I want you two locked down in every way you’ll allow. That includes a wedding, and it sure as fuck includes my ring on both of your fingers.” “You sneaky bastard.” He shrugs, completely unrepentant. “I want what I want.” Something he’s said before, but I’m yet again amazed by his willingness to line up the dominoes and tip them over to accomplish the goal he has in mind. He grins at me. “Yes, Gaeton. I’ll marry you.” Isabelle turns in my arms until she can lean back and see my face. I know I’m moving too fast, but is it really too fast? ...